Harnessing the Power of Otherness | Christine Ha | TEDxOccidentalCollege
Summary
TLDREn este conmovedor relato, una persona de origen vietnamita que creció en EE.UU. narra su experiencia como alguien que se sintió diferente, desde la vergüenza por su comida tradicional hasta su lucha contra la enfermedad autoinmune NMO, que le llevó a perder la vista. A lo largo de su viaje, aprendió a aceptar su discapacidad, encontrar apoyo en su comunidad y a practicar la autocompasión. Su historia inspira a otros a abrazar su 'diferencia', educar a los demás y ser amables consigo mismos, promoviendo un mundo con más empatía.
Takeaways
- 👶 Nació en Estados Unidos de padres vietnamitas y se sintió avergonzada de su comida cultural al crecer.
- 👩🎓 A los 20 años comenzó la universidad para estudiar escritura creativa mientras se adaptaba a la vida sin visión.
- 💉 Fue diagnosticada con neuromielitis óptica, una enfermedad autoinmune que afecta los nervios ópticos y la médula espinal.
- 😷 Aunque encontró un tratamiento eficaz, el uso de terapia inmunosupresora la hace propensa a enfermarse con frecuencia.
- 👁️ Su visión se describe como mirar a través de un espejo empañado después de una ducha caliente, percibiendo formas y sombras.
- 📚 Aprendió Braille para poder leer y ser literata de manera independiente, superando los desafíos de aprendizaje.
- 👨👩👦👦 Encontró apoyo en otras personas con discapacidades similares y esto la ayudó a aceptar su nueva realidad.
- ✈️ Utiliza experiencias incómodas o malentendidos sobre su discapacidad para educar a los demás con humor.
- 💪 Promueve la autocompasión, sugiriendo que es clave para el crecimiento personal y la aceptación de uno mismo.
- 🤣 Comparte historias divertidas de sus experiencias con discapacidad para normalizar y humanizar su condición.
Q & A
¿Por qué la persona se sentía avergonzada de la comida que su madre le enviaba al colegio?
-Se sentía avergonzada porque los alimentos, como la salsa de pescado, la panceta de cerdo y el paté hecho de hígado, no eran populares entre sus compañeros y resultaban extraños o desagradables para ellos.
¿Qué condición médica afectó a la persona en su juventud y cómo impactó en su vida?
-Fue diagnosticada con neuromielitis óptica (NMO), una enfermedad autoinmune que afecta principalmente a los nervios ópticos y la médula espinal, lo que le provocaba episodios de parálisis y ceguera.
¿Cómo describió la persona su visión después de perder la vista debido a la NMO?
-Describió su visión como si estuviera mirando a través de un espejo empañado después de una ducha caliente: veía formas, sombras y un poco de color, pero todo muy borroso.
¿Qué aprendizaje tuvo que realizar para adaptarse a su nueva realidad como persona con discapacidad visual?
-Tuvo que aprender a usar un bastón para desplazarse (orientación y movilidad), a navegar en el transporte público y a aprender Braille para poder leer por sí misma en lugar de depender exclusivamente de audiolibros.
¿Por qué decidió aprender Braille y cómo fue su proceso de aprendizaje?
-Decidió aprender Braille porque quería ser realmente alfabetizada como persona con discapacidad visual, ya que escuchar audiolibros no le daba la misma experiencia que leer por sí misma. El proceso fue difícil al principio, pero su determinación, inspirada en la perseverancia de sus padres, le permitió avanzar.
¿Qué incidente gracioso experimentó mientras intentaba leer un manual en Braille?
-Mientras intentaba leer un manual de seguridad en un avión, se dio cuenta de que no entendía la mitad del texto. Más tarde, su instructor le explicó que aún no había aprendido Braille contraído, lo que hizo que su lectura fuera incompleta.
¿Cuál fue la actitud de la persona frente a la ignorancia o comentarios inadecuados sobre su discapacidad visual?
-Afrontaba los comentarios ignorantes con humor y paciencia. Por ejemplo, cuando un trabajador de la TSA comentó que no parecía 'ciega' porque se veía 'normal', ella aprovechó la oportunidad para educarlo de manera amigable.
¿Cuál es el valor de la autocompasión según la persona y cómo le ayudó en su proceso de adaptación?
-La autocompasión es esencial para el crecimiento personal y el éxito, más que la autoconfianza. Le ayudó a aceptar su discapacidad visual, a sentirse menos avergonzada de usar su bastón y a reírse de situaciones embarazosas.
¿Por qué la persona enfatiza la importancia de rodearse de personas similares a uno mismo?
-Rodearse de personas con experiencias similares ayuda a sentirse menos como un 'extraño' y brinda apoyo emocional, lo que fue crucial en su proceso de aceptar su discapacidad visual.
¿Qué mensaje central comparte la persona sobre la 'otredad' y cómo podemos abrazarla?
-El mensaje central es que debemos abrazar nuestra 'otredad' conectando con personas similares, educando a quienes no lo son y practicando la autocompasión. Al hacerlo, podemos contribuir a crear un mundo más empático y comprensivo.
Outlines
👶 Reflexiones de la infancia y el inicio de la enfermedad
La autora recuerda cómo, al crecer en Estados Unidos como hija de padres vietnamitas, se sentía avergonzada por la comida que llevaba a la escuela, y cómo eso se reflejaba en su identidad. También comparte el diagnóstico de una condición autoinmune llamada NMO, que afectó sus nervios ópticos y su médula espinal, causando ceguera y parálisis. Explica cómo, tras años de ataques, finalmente encontró un tratamiento efectivo, aunque perdió la vista permanentemente y empezó a adaptarse a una vida con discapacidad visual.
💪 Determinación para aprender Braille
A pesar de los desafíos que enfrentaba con su discapacidad visual, la autora decidió aprender Braille para poder seguir sus estudios en escritura creativa. Describe cómo inicialmente aprendió solo la letra 'A', ya que reentrenar su cerebro para percibir con los dedos en lugar de los ojos fue complicado. Relata su esfuerzo por aprender Braille no contraído, y cómo una experiencia en un vuelo la llevó a darse cuenta de que aún no había aprendido Braille contraído, lo que reflejó su determinación y herencia de sus padres refugiados vietnamitas.
✈️ Aprovechando oportunidades para educar a otros
En este párrafo, la autora reflexiona sobre la importancia de educar a otros, incluso cuando enfrentan comentarios insensibles o ignorantes. Comparte una experiencia en un aeropuerto donde un agente de TSA le hizo comentarios ofensivos sobre su ceguera. En lugar de enfadarse, la autora eligió tomar el comentario como una oportunidad para educar, usando el humor para suavizar la interacción. Subraya la importancia de ser proactivo al crear un mundo más inclusivo y comprensivo, interactuando con aquellos que no son como nosotros.
💖 La importancia de la autocompasión
La autora concluye con la idea de la autocompasión, destacando su importancia para el crecimiento personal. Comparte cómo al principio se avergonzaba de su discapacidad, ocultando su bastón para no parecer diferente, pero al aceptar su condición, encontró más paz y menos explicaciones incómodas. Utiliza el humor para compartir experiencias divertidas relacionadas con su ceguera, como confundir a una maniquí con una persona. Finaliza sugiriendo que la autocompasión es esencial para amar y respetar a uno mismo, lo que a su vez permite ser tratado con empatía por los demás.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Identidad cultural
💡Neural mielitis óptica (NMO)
💡Superación personal
💡Red de apoyo
💡Compasión propia
💡Educación y sensibilización
💡Braille
💡Humor
💡Sensación de otredad
💡Autonomía
Highlights
The speaker shares their experience of being embarrassed by traditional Vietnamese food as a child, showcasing cultural identity struggles.
They discuss being diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica (NMO), an autoimmune condition affecting the optic nerves and spinal cord, leading to partial blindness.
Despite years of NMO attacks causing full-body paralysis and blindness, the speaker has remained attack-free for over ten years due to a successful treatment plan.
The speaker describes their remaining vision as 'looking into a foggy mirror after a hot shower,' demonstrating their limited perception of shapes, shadows, and light.
They emphasize the challenge of adjusting to life with vision impairment while attending graduate school for creative writing.
Learning Braille becomes a significant turning point, as the speaker wanted to be truly literate rather than relying on audiobooks.
The determination to learn Braille is linked to the speaker's background as the child of Vietnamese refugees, highlighting cultural resilience.
The speaker humorously recalls reading a flight safety manual in uncontracted Braille, only to discover they hadn’t yet learned contracted Braille.
The importance of finding a community is stressed, particularly connecting with others who understand living with disabilities, making the speaker feel less isolated.
They share an encounter with a TSA worker, using humor to educate about blindness and challenge misconceptions of what is 'normal.'
The speaker encourages not avoiding people who are different, but rather embracing opportunities to educate others.
The concept of self-compassion is introduced as more critical for personal growth than self-confidence, according to recent psychological studies.
Self-compassion helped the speaker accept their disability and navigate life more easily, making them more relatable and human.
They recount embarrassing yet humorous experiences as a vision-impaired person, such as grabbing a mannequin’s arm instead of their cousin's.
The speaker concludes that embracing one's 'otherness' can evolve the world from a place of tolerance to one of empathy.
Transcripts
as a child born in America to Vietnamese
parents I was often embarrassed of the
foods that my mom used to pack for me to
take to school fish sauce was smelly
pork belly wasn't cool yet and the pate
in my sandwiches everyone was disgusted
that it was God forbid made from liver
as a young adult in my 20s I still felt
like an outsider I had just begun
graduate school and creative writing and
at the same time I was adjusting to life
without sight you see prior to that a
few years before I was diagnosed with
neural myelitis opteka or nmo for short
which is an autoimmune condition that
affects primarily the optic nerves in
the spinal cord for many years I had
attack after attack that would result in
full-body paralysis or complete
blindness and sometimes even both at the
same time fortunately my doctors
eventually found a treatment plan that
worked well for me and I've been I've
remained attack free for I would say a
little over ten years but the downside
is it's an immunosuppressive therapy so
I get sick quite often and you might be
able to tell right now with my voice
that I'm sick right now but I was able
to recover from the spinal cord
inflammation but the optic nerves didn't
do so well and so over many years my
optic nerves atrophied and turn from a
healthy pink to a pale yellow and so
that's how I eventually lost my vision
and I described my vision as though if
you were to come out of a very hot
shower and you looked into the foggy
mirror that's kind of what I see so I
see some shapes mostly shadows a little
bit of color I perceive some light so to
go back to school for graduate school I
had to learn how to live life as a
person with a vision impairment so I had
to learn orientation mobility which is
how to use a cane to walk around I had
to learn how to navigate the public
transportation system in Houston to get
from home
to campus and throughout all of this I
still felt like an outsider because I
was embarrassed I would walk on campus
into trees stumble over construction
sites and more often than I'd like to
admit I would almost walk directly into
the reflections pool because there's no
ledge and especially when the fountains
weren't running I had no audio cues to
help me orient myself as to where the
fountains were so how did I eventually
harness the power of feeling like an
other or the power of other nough stood
with purpose what are the steps that you
can also take to achieve the same so
three steps the first is connect with
others who are like yourself so find a
community and a support network as I was
going through all of these health
problems my friends and my family were
very concerned for me but honestly they
didn't really understand what it was
like to go blind or to be diagnosed with
the chronic disease and it wasn't until
I met other people like myself whether
it was through vocational rehabilitation
programs for the blind or a foundation
that was for people living with nmo that
I finally felt like less of an outsider
and it even motivated me to take my
first step towards accepting this new
paradigm and I decided to learn Braille
because going back to school for
creative writing I knew that I had to
learn to read because I'd heard someone
speak about that you're not truly
literate if you're a blind person unless
you know how to read Braille because you
can listen to audiobooks which is what I
was thinking I would do all through
graduate school is listen to all of the
novels I had to read for school on audio
but you're not really literate unless
you're reading it yourself so with
Braille you're actually reading yourself
with your fingers as a vision impaired
person when you're listening to an audio
book you're actually getting fed someone
else is reading so the I think how you
perceive a story or
how will you perceive certain census
sentences will be very much determined
by the intonation or the inflections
that the reader uses so anyway so I
decided to learn Braille and my
instructor who's also blind would come
to my house once a week and we would sit
at my dining table for an hour and he
would teach me Braille and for those of
you who many probably don't know Braille
Braille is six cells and then the first
cell on the very top left if that's if
that cell is raised that's the letter A
and for a long time that's the only
letter I knew how to read because it's
very hard to try to train your brain and
get it to rewire to your fingers instead
of your your eyes to perceive things but
I was determined I'm a determined person
you know my parents are Vietnamese
refugees they came from Vietnam in 1975
and they were determined people to make
a better life for themselves here so I
got that determination from them and so
I kept at it and I decided to learn
Braille and funny story is I learned
uncontracted Braille first so usually
they teach you uncontracted Braille
which means you have like every letter
is every symbol is represents one letter
and so I thought I learn a new Braille
and one time I was flying on a plane and
the flight attendant gave me the safety
manual in Braille and I started reading
it and all of a sudden I was like I
don't understand like half of this stuff
so I went home and I told my Braille
teacher I was like I don't think you
taught me the right Braille because I
didn't really understand anything the
instruction manual and then he was like
oh I didn't want to tell you but you're
an overachiever and I haven't taught you
second like contracted Braille yet so we
have to order the books because you're
the first person that's actually gotten
this far in learning Braille so I didn't
learn contracted Braille which is when
every symbol or many of those symbols or
the Braille cells actually stand for
certain words or different clusters of
letters so that's the overachiever Asian
in me I guess but anyway so the first
point is find people who are like you at
the end of the day we're all human and
as human beings we just desire to be
loved
respected understood and treated with
dignity so second point although you
should surround yourself with people who
are similar to you you should also not
avoid people who are not like you
welcome the opportunity to be able to
educate other people so here's another
story for you I travel quite a bit for
the line of work that I do and there was
one time when I was going through an
airport by myself and I had just gone
through security checkpoint I walked
through the x-ray and there was a TSA
worker on the other side and he said wow
you're so brave you're travelling by
yourself and you you know your vision
impaired you're blind and in my head I
was like well you know I just won
MasterChef and I've had Gordon Ramsay
like swear and curse at me and tell me
my food sucks so I don't think like I
can you know I can do a little bit of
independent traveling that's fine but of
course like you know I just smiled and I
said well you know it's it's not that
bad I do it all the time and then the
kicker is the next thing the TSA worker
says to me is oh I didn't even know you
were blind you look so normal and if my
immediate reaction is I am normal what's
normal anyway right you know his
sentence was or what he said to me was
offensive but I had to realize that it
came from a place of ignorance so I'm
pretty sure that this man had not come
into contact with many people who are
blind or vision-impaired before so he
didn't really know how to react or how
to treat someone who is blind or
vision-impaired so I took that
opportunity to kind of educate him and
let him know that what he said was not
appropriate by combating with a little
humor so be proactive in creating a
world that you desire so third and last
is be self compassionate in a New York
Times article recently there was a write
up about how psychological studies
showed that self compassion is actually
more important to personal growth and
success than self confidence self
compassion is treating yourself with the
same kindness and care that you would
show
loved one and self-compassion encourages
you to acknowledge and accept your own
flaws and shortcomings and limitations
thereby making you more human and more
relatable I learned a little bit of self
compassion once I started accepting the
fact that I was now this person living
with a vision impairment before when I
first started losing my vision I was
really embarrassed because I felt very
different I felt like the other all the
time I would hide using my cane and I
would rather walk into walls and and
trip over tables then let people know
that I was a vision parent that I had to
use a cane I felt like using a cane or
letting people know that I was vision
impaired made me feel like less of a
person or that I wasn't good enough but
it was when I finally started accepting
it and using my cane that life I found
was actually a little bit easier it took
less explanation for when I would
stumble into the men's restroom on
campus so that was a you know less
embarrassing because I had the cane and
if now all of these like faux pas things
that I commit as a blind person I'll
tweet about them and just put hashtag
blind life and they become funny stories
to tell my friends like for example I
was in New York and I was shopping with
my cousin in a clothing store and you
know usually I'll take someone's arm for
them to guide me and I was taking her
arm but instead of taking my cousin's
arm I grabbed a mannequins arm and I
pretty much toppled over the entire
clothing display but it's a funny story
so it's really good to be able to laugh
at yourself but more importantly it's
good to have self compassion you can't
expect others to love and respect you if
you don't first love and respect
yourself
so to recount in order to harness the
power of my other nests or your other
nough so don't avoid people who are not
like you take the opportunity to educate
others and three have compassion for
yourself and once you can embrace and
celebrate your other nests are world
evolves into a place that is not just of
tolerance but of empathy and that's an
idea worth sharing thank you
[Applause]
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